May 22, 2004

Suddenly there seems to be a surge of interest in Joy Division's frontman, Ian Curtis. A few days ago Filmbrain wrote about a supposed biopic on Ian Curtis with Moby acting as the film's executive producer (could you imagine if HE played Ian..umm, no).
According to the Guardian UK the another production team has announced its plan to base a film on Ian Curtis' life.
Xan Brooks writes:

"Isn't it always the way? You wait 24 years for a biopic of Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis and then two roll along at once."

Maybe the desire for making these films stem from the recent 70's and 80's nostalgia in pop culture. It could be another Sid and Nancy type film that sensationalizes the rock and roll lifestyle. Either way it's long overdue.

May 18, 2004

Main Entry: 1rap·ture
Pronunciation: 'rap-ch&r
Function: noun
Etymology: Latin raptus
1 a : a state or experience of being carried away by overwhelming emotion b : a mystical experience in which the spirit is exalted to a knowledge of divine things
2 : an expression or manifestation of ecstasy or passion

Upon viewing Claude Chabrol'sLa Rapture, I felt a sense of nostalgia for intricately structured thrillers of the 60's and 70's. Many cinephiles have compared Chabrol to Hitchcock. This isn't a surprise considering he has written an influential book on Hitchcock in 1957. Richard Armstrong writes in Senses of Cinema,

"Lang and Hitchcock would have profound influences upon Chabrol's own films. From Lang, he derived a sense of cinematic space, the relationship of image to narrative, the prospect of entrapment. From Hitchcock, he derived a sense of irony, the relationship between guilt and the individual, the prospect of murder."

As in Les Innocents aux mains sales (Innocents with Dirty Hands), La Rapture manipulates the viewers expectations, quickly confirming that Chabrol can successfully prove assumptions wrong. Helene Regnier (Stephane Audran) runs away from her abusive husband after a violent outburst that resulted in their son's hospitalization. Her son is seriously injured so she decides to move into a seedy boarding house across the street from the hospital. The boarding house provides some amazing supporting actors, the washed-up actor, the boarding house keeper, her husband and "backward daughter, a doctor, and the three fates- all of them serve an important purpose as revealed by the end of the film. Shortly after she files for a divorce Helene's bourgeois father-in-law hires a shady family friend, Paul Thomas, to smear her character. From here on Paul works hard to break Helene's sanity and her spirit by snaking his way into her life (he even moves into the boarding house claiming that he is sick and must attend regular "treatments" at the hospital") and turning all her friends against her. Paul Thomas is one of the scariest villains I've ever encountered in celluloid. The creepiest sort, the kind that stops at nothing- including plotting a perverted scenario involving the boarding house lady's "backward" daughter. At this point what we expect does not happen. That's all I'm going to say about the plot.
Claude Chabrol constructs an environment that uncovers the absurd (especially in the bourgeoisie), that deception only reflects an inevitable fate. A theme he chronicles throughout his films.

April 21, 2004

This is definitely a belated post.Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was released months ago and has been mentioned just about anywhere in the blogsphere.
Upon watching the preview for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind I was skeptical with the choice of actors. Jim Carey was never a favorite of mine, in fact I really don't like him at all (he was ok when he was In Living Color) and Kate Winslet, well go see Titanic. The preview also depicted a much lighter, quirky kind of film than it actually is (more on that later). Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is one of the most emotionally dark and volatile films I've seen for a while. Maybe my low expectations hindered my opinion but I saw the overall narrative as near perfect. In The use of non-linear storytelling is not new. It's a cinematic device used by many to convey an emotional response or to connect different themes. This is one of those instances where the use of dreamy montages and reverse narrative actually works.

"Eternal Sunshine" begins with Joel (Jim Carey) walking up on a wintery morning, presumably for work ,and then walking to his car only find a huge dent on the driver's side door. The next scene he is waiting on a train platform headed for the city. Joel then spontaneously dashes on-board a train to Montauk instead and takes the day off. Walking along the beach, he notices an interesting blue haired girl (Kate Winslet as Clementine). We hear his subconscious thoughts about the nature of attraction and love- why he falls in love with anyone who shows him the slightest bit of attention?

March 29, 2004

Lars Van Trier's Dogville has caused a good amount of ruckus in the film world. Some critics are reduced to hissing, screaming expletives, and giving the screen "the bird" at screenings of the film. Greencine Daily notes that a critic from the Slate, David Edelstien really hated the film. He ends the article on this note:

The pugnacious critic Armond White, whose dudgeon in this instance seems just, points out that von Trier condescends to the artists he rips off—Dreyer in Breaking the Waves, Fellini in Dancer in the Dark, and here Thornton Wilder, whose Our Town metamorphoses into a Shirley Jackson American Gothic before our eyes. (This is a crime against both Wilder, whose play remains a vivid and moving collision of American optimism with the fact of death, and Jackson, who in her novels captures a species of inbred American repression as well as anyone.) Von Trier really gives us Yanks the big middle finger in the credit sequence, which presents photos of real American poverty, hopelessness, and desperation while David Bowie warbles the acidic "Young Americans." That was when I gave the movie the finger right back; I wanted to throw things at the screen. I'm sure Lars von Trier would regard me the way Col. Jessup regards the lieutenant in A Few Good Men—I can't handle the truth. But it's more like I can't handle selective half-truths by a preening, misanthropic bully who wouldn't recognize an act of decency if it bit him on the ass.
On the other hand, maybe von Trier is right that we Americans are dogs: His movies seem to call to me like fire hydrants.

Notice the backhanded comment suggesting that Lars Von Trier's vision is a filtered copy of great movie auteurs like Fellini and Dryer. Though I was looking forward to seeing it before, this scathing review makes me want to run out and see Dogville right this second knowing that it has pissed off so many people.
I already have a few films queued up for the next few weeks. Despite how busy my life is right now, I will attempt to see Good Bye Lenin and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind hopefully this week.

March 26, 2004

Last month I was fortunate enough to see Piccadilly, which was recently restored by the British Film Institute, at The Castro Theater. Piccadilly has gained a lot of attention primarily due to its star Anna May Wong, the forgotten but newly revived Hollywood icon.
The character she plays in Piccadilly is not unlike all the other characters she has played in Hollywood films. She plays Shosho, a Chinese dishwasher at a fancy London club, who proceeds to become the wealthy club owner's object of affection. With the help of Shosho's Chinese husband, she becomes a performer at the club. An affair develops between the club owner and Shosho, this leads to a series of events that lead to Shosho's demise and ultimately her death. In the end, she is punished for having an affair with a white man and for her sexual transgression. The film is lushly photographed and intricately designed. Lots of "Oriental" inspired costumes and decorations that match the big production values of Hollywood.

"Among a terrifying arsenal of guns, bullets and bombs, the FBI found a chemical cyanide bomb. Used in a shopping mall, a stadium or a subway, it could have killed thousands.

If that wasn't scary enough, it does get much scarier:

"More weapons were found at Krar and Bruey's secluded home in the pine woods that surround Tyler. Eventually the haul totalled 500,000 rounds of ammunition, more than 60 pipe bombs, other remote-controlled bombs disguised as brief cases, and dozens of machineguns, silencers, pistols, mines and explosives."

There goes "homeland" security. Note the comment that Mark Potok, the editor of The Intelligence Report,makes at the end of the article.

March 23, 2004

What Time Is It There?, Taiwanese director Tsai Ming-Liang's most recent feature, continues to explore isolation, the break-down of the family unit, and the longing for genuine human contact. His characters often perform mundane tasks, not always directly recognizable to the viewer, and resume their daily lives without speaking. Using minimal cuts, the camera lingers as we wait for things to unfold and usually it's never what we would expect. He forces us to decipher their actions for ourselves, taking in every painful, funny, or pathetic scene.
Purveyors and fans of cinema would easily find similarities between Tsai Ming-Liangs work and the French New Wave- particularly Truffaut and Bresson. In an interview published in Skrien, no.2 March 2002, he says:

"The European films of the Nouvelle Vague or the New German Cinema films were indeed very different. And they moved me enormously. I was moved just as much by the films of my childhood. But I think European films are closer to me because they are about modern life and ordinary, modern men. And I have the idea they are more realistic, true to life."

If you're looking for a straight forward narrative with substantial amounts of dialogue, this film will not deliver either.

March 21, 2004

You would think working at a bookstore (albeit part-time) would mean more time for reading. I have been so busy that books are starting to pile up at my bedside waiting for me to snap out of my snafu.
Here's a short list of the neglected:
1.Rereading Sex, Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz
I bought this a month ago after reading Tipping the Velvet. I wanted to learn more about Ninteeth-century sexual habits and desire. The author also contributed to Jane Sexes it Up: True Confessions of Feminist Desire.

"Although the work is very preliminary, it could someday be used in voice recognition systems and to help people communicate clearly in noisy environments -- from space stations to air traffic control towers. It could help people who have lost their ability to speak, or allow someone to chat with a colleague across a conference table without making a sound.

If, in fact, this technology progresses into what they say it will do, How could you prevent outside parties (besides the people who you are trying to communicate with) from picking up the signals? Although, this sounds pretty cool and innovative, How about if you thought of something and the nerve signals were picked up, then you decided that what you thought before was wrong?
Despite these questions, I would love the abilty to surf the Web without using my hands. Goodbye, carpal tunnel.